The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1887-04-07
TEMPERANCE READING.
TO THE DisTiLLER,

peals to Him In Behalf of Society and
the Nation. .....
While you sleep, some miserable
wretch reels under the influence of the
liquor made by you. While every
morning, around the family altar, you
breathe q Christians thanksgiving. and
utter supplicant's prayer, your whisky
is busily at work opening hundreds OF
mouths with bitter curses. On the
Sabbath day, thank God, that long,
broad. gloomy stream of upward smoke
from your distillery, which reminds
men that pass by your town OF the
smoke Of the torment of the pit, is
allowed to rest and Lawrenceburgh
has pure air for one day in the week.
On this blessed morning, the six-days'
heated still begins to cool-on this only
day the fifty barrels go untitled of
whisky. But as you turn your steps to
the church, to partake of its refresh
ment and worship, how many are there
who have been drunk all night on your
whisky. and whose heads yet reel with
the fumes, and will reel until they ''seek
it again" While you look Heaven
ward, they tend hellward.
Oh, sir, do you ever go to the COM
munion table? DO you ever sit down
in humble penitence to take those
affecting symbols of Him who. for your
sake, became poor, was broken, cruci-
fed? Even while the consecrated wine
is upon your lips, your whisky is still
ut work in some Bacchanal crew, who
disturb the stiffness of the day with
oaths, disappearing Him in whom you
trust for salvation, and whose death
| you commemorate!
What if you should sit down in the
I quietness of some Sabbath evening,
and in that hour ripe tor meditation,
by some supernatural power God
should bring before your eyes all the
results of the whisky made by you.
From the tent of the far-away Indian,
from the hamlcts on the verge of civil
ization, from the villages far and near,
from vale and hillside, from dens Of
vice and lairs of crime, from the adul-
terer's chamber and from the murder
er's haunt, would come trooping to
your eye all the ghastly disfgure-
ments of abominable iniquity-each
impcrsonatcd evil as it fitted past,
would point at you its withered hand
and cry: "Thou art my author!'
Crimes would hail you. All the hid
cous temptations that do destroy men
would bow to you and cry out in
hoarse tones: "Hail! my parent"
And would not your own conscience,
breaking its prison doors where it has
been immured, join; and loudest,
sharpest, most authoritative of them
all, summon you to meet that God on
whose creatures you have not ceased
to pour that destroying stream from
: the distillerv?
, Oh. sir, your heart surely is not
! turned to stone; you yet. l would fair
! believe, have hours of reflection and OF
conscience-stricken forebodings. Ither
: appeal to you as a man, as Christian
to desist from this most detestable
most accursed traffic. BY all the mis-
cry which it works, by all the tears
which it draws from orphanage ant
widowhood, by the misrule and de
bauch which it spreads, by the violence
{ by the fate of those who by it arr
brought down to the grave. by al
. sweet affections blighted, and hope
smitten, by your hatred of crime ant
your detestation of vice, by your re
. gard for religion, for your own accoun
> in that awful and impending hour. l be
!, seech you to stop this nefarious business
!, , to put out those fires which are burn
r ing soul and body. Once more return
s to the church in your right mind. Dis
g miss that fatal idea with which Satal
has cajoled you, that you shall max
gain by distilling. God is against you
a His providence will turn your way
+ upside down. Money got by unjus
It ways is Gods sharpest curse upon tn
: getter. 1t will eat you like cankel
y Your gold will sweat blood in you
II hands, or it will distill it on your chi
: dren. If you pursue this course, afte
y perhaps a short and Elusive prosperity
y you will stumble headlong in your way
h with temporal and eternal ruin.
A
# But is money the only thing that
2 nation wants? Would nation of ric
= slaves be enviable? Could all the bow
h els of the earth afford gold enough
q pay us for our laws, our freedom. OF
Il honest industry, our schools, college
= and churches?
The money made by immoral near
E, is worse than counterfeit. 1t damn
the men, and will damn the people thi
- love it. appeal every honest ma
)" to say which are the best for lant
>. honest poor men or rich scoundrels
Distilleries make us rich? Why s
20 would smuggling, and piracy, and fire.
10 booting, in just the same way. At fir
they would roll in money, and at la
= roll in damnation: Here is a neigl
borhood with hundred farmers; the
ss own, ON an average, eighty acr
apiece; they are out of debt; if the
y, lay up no money, they lose none; a
u U, their children 60 to school; they are
~ peace with each other, and happy.
or distillery is built in their midst; thu
grow rich and corrupt; churches a
.. suffered to rot down and school-hous
=, are used to store grain in; nothing C;
-. stand before their lust of money; tn,
~ have sacrificed the conscience
=, patronizing distillery for the sake
money. and il will not be hard to sacl